Leonardo Dicaprio to play his namesake da Vinci in upcoming biopic

Leonardo DiCaprio is to star Leonardo da Vinci in an upcoming film depicting the great Italian polymath’s life.

Deadline reports that Universal and Paramount were in a fierce bidding war for the rights to Walter Isaacson’s book Leonardo Da Vinci, a battle which was eventually won by Paramount to make the biopic film based on the upcoming biography.

It will also be produced by Appian Way, the production company set up by Leo DiCaprio alongside Jennifer Davisson, which had a hand in making films such as Shutter Island, The Aviator and Red Riding Hood.

As for the star of the film and the man he portrays having the same first name, DiCaprio himself has previously claimed da Vinci is in fact his namesake, as he explained in a 2014 interview with NPR.

“My father tells me that [he and my mother] were on their honeymoon at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, I believe. They were looking at a da Vinci painting, and allegedly I started kicking furiously while my mother was pregnant.

[Possible self-portrait of da Vinci – c. 1513]

“And my father took that as a sign, and I suppose DiCaprio wasn’t that far from da Vinci. And so, my dad, being the artist that he is, said, ‘That’s our boy’s name.'”

There’s currently no date set for the release of the film, particularly as the book it bases itself on is not even released yet, which itself has a due release date of October 17.